Your thirst for topical punchlines and reusable desk bits is about to be quenched…well, if talk show hosts can come up with them off the tops of their heads. The Drew Barrymore Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Jennifer Hudson Show, and The Talk announced this week that they will return to the air despite the ongoing writers and actors strikes—but there’ll be no writers.

They aren’t technically breaking any rules.

• Under the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) terms, talk show hosts like Barrymore, Maher, and Hudson are contracted under an agreement known as the Netcode, which is not under negotiation like the deal for actors is. That’s how shows like The View can do, erm, whatever they’re doing right now, even with the SAG strike going on.
• But because of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, the hosts have to riff without a script. During the last writers strike in 2007, Ellen Degeneres caught flak for performing monologue-style introductions she claimed were improvised.

There’s been a cacophony of pushback, especially for Barrymore. Her show’s striking co-head writer spoke out, WGA picketers gathered outside Barrymore’s studio, and the National Book Awards rescinded the invite for her to host their November ceremony.

So, why are they doing it?

In a video posted on her Instagram yesterday, Barrymore defended her decision, saying, “There are other people’s jobs on the line.” Maher shared a similar sentiment on X (formerly Twitter), saying he didn’t want to “see so many below-the-line people suffer.”

Late night hosts who returned to their desks without writers during the 2008 strike, including Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Conan O’Brien, gave similar reasons.

But there are other ways to support crews. Recently, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver created the Strike Force Five podcast, promising to donate proceeds to staff and crew who aren’t working. Plus, The Union Solidarity Coalition is funding crew healthcare by auctioning off Zoom calls with celebs and Lena Dunham murals.

Looking ahead…more talk shows may come back soon, and the WGA and major studios are set to meet for negotiations next week for the first time since mid-August.—MM

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Hurricane Lee approaches New England and Canada. Like the shark in Jaws that doesn’t appear for the first hour of the movie, Hurricane Lee has been hanging out in the Atlantic Ocean but is finally ready to strike. The storm is expected to make landfall today in New Brunswick, Canada, with the strength of a powerful tropical storm. But because it’s such a large storm, with topical-storm level winds stretching as far as 300 miles from its center, Lee’s impact will likely be felt in New England and along the East Coast.

G-7 to ban Russian diamonds. In the latest coordinated effort to try to starve Russia’s war machine, the Group of Seven nations plan to announce a ban on importing Russian diamonds within the next three weeks (though it won’t kick in until next year). Exactly how to implement it is still being debated, as major diamond hubs like Belgium want to ensure they’re not just kicking business to Dubai. But the biggest diamond industry threat may not be international competition since lab-grown diamonds have recently taken a bite out of the market for natural diamonds as consumers embrace more sustainable (and cheaper) love tokens.

Your US v. Google update. We’re one week into the 10-week trial in the government’s high-stakes antitrust case against Google, and the two sides have staked out their positions. The DOJ claims that Google spends billions per year to maintain its monopoly over search, paying to be the default on web browsers and mobile devices. Google, meanwhile, asserts that its dominant position comes from being better than all its competitors. “If Google is prevented from competing, that won’t make Yahoo or DuckDuckGo run faster,” the company’s lawyer said in court.

The United Auto Workers strike that began yesterday is historic not just because it’s the first one ever called against the Big Three automakers simultaneously but also because the union is adopting a new strategy that brings signaling-left-but-turning-right energy to the labor fight.

About 146,000 UAW members are employed at Ford, GM, and Stellantis, but rather than all striking from the jump, workers will walk out in waves at specific locations as negotiations persist. So far, nearly 13,000 Ford, GM, and Stellantis factory workers have walked off the job at three plants that produce 9% of the companies’ vehicles in North America.

This unusual strategy will “keep the companies guessing,” maximizing the union’s leverage, UAW President Shawn Fain said. Knock-on effects have already begun: Ford temporarily laid off 600 non-striking workers yesterday, and GM expects to shut down a plant next week for lack of parts.

Having fewer workers strike will also stretch the UAW’s $825 million strike fund, which gets disbursed to picketing members, so the union can afford to bargain for longer. It could be a long haul: The automakers’ leaders—including GM CEO Mary Barra, who got flamed yesterday for defending her $29 million salary—claim that meeting the union’s pay demands would bankrupt them.

Washington is trying to pump the brakes…President Biden said the companies should improve their offers, and he’s sending two administration officials to Detroit to help facilitate the gridlocked negotiations.

The UAW expects to continue talks with the car companies today.—ML

A psychedelic drug familiar to Tomorrowland attendees could be an effective treatment for PTSD, according to research published in Nature Medicine this week.

MDMA, aka “ecstasy” or “molly,” combined with therapy, was shown to produce a “clinically meaningful” improvement for almost 90% of treated patients with moderate and severe PTSD.

The encouraging results put the currently illicit substance on a path to becoming a prescription drug if US regulators approve it for widespread clinical use.

How does MDMA do it? One researcher involved in the study dubbed the drug “a communication lubricant” that makes it easier for patients to open up about their trauma. That could explain why 71% of participants taking MDMA ended up PTSD-free, compared to 48% of the placebo group (who also got therapy).

The prominent activist group behind the research effort, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, plans to apply for FDA approval for MDMA by the end of the year, and it’s already talking with health insurers about covering the drug.

Zoom out: Psychedelics are increasingly getting buy-in from psychiatrists and lawmakers around the world. Australia recently became the first country to legalize MDMA and psilocybin for clinical use. Meanwhile, visionaries are lining up to embark on a supervised magic mushroom trip at Epic Healing Eugene in Oregon—the US’ first licensed psilocybin service center.—SK

Stat: Ted Lasso was onto something, because British football is entering its American era. Yesterday, US investment firm 777 Partners agreed to buy Premier League club Everton from owner Farhad Moshiri. The deal still needs league approval, but if it goes through, 10 of the 20 top-flight clubs will be American-owned, according to the BBC. In no time, it’ll be 11 once Wrexham gets promoted (well, technically 10.5, since Ryan Reynolds is Canadian).

Quote: “The punchline is worth the fictionalized premise.”

Comedian Hasan Minhaj explained to the New Yorker that some of the stories he tells about his life in his stand-up act are based on “emotional truth,” but not on the actual truth—at least not in the details. That includes a story about white powder suspected to be anthrax falling on his daughter and another about an FBI informant infiltrating the mosque he visited with his family as a child. Still, he said the stories he tells onstage are all “built around a seed of truth.”

Read: China has one-fifth of the world’s population and buys half its cigarettes. Here’s why. (The Examination)

Learn: Why they starting making so many different colored Legos.

Listen: These pop songs from movies and TV are fake, but they slap for real.

Travel tip: Here are the spots being considered to join the ranks of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Book recs: Check out the National Book Awards longlist for nonfiction.

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Brew crossword: This puzzle is all about unconventional cultural celebrations. We know Frank Costanza would play today’s crossword—you should, too.

Open House

Welcome to Open House, the only newsletter section throwing its own private Oktoberfest. We’ll give you a few facts about a listing and you try to guess the price.

Today’s listing is a whole dang German castle. It looks spooky from a distance, but…nope, also looks a li’l haunted up close. The, um, serene castle is located about an hour and a half west of Frankfurt in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Amenities include:

• Crumbling tower
• Rounded ceilings
• Medieval skittle alley (olden bowling)

How much for some 14th-century magic?

€2.9 million (~$3.1 million)

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: cacophony, meaning “a harsh mixture of sounds.” Thanks to Nancy M., from Spearfish, South Dakota, for the very loud suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.